where does that leave us, the die hard faithful who invested in America?

 

Regardless of how bad it is, the media is just preying on any bad news that comes out. If for nothing else I hope the bankruptcy or whatever happens to GM happens soon. Then we can move on and stop all the speculation.

I wish all you hybrid owners the best of luck. I put my decision to purchase on hold for a few more months. I wanted to do my part in stimulating sales, but all the news (and lack of real information) just makes me nervous.

 

Same place it leaves us every summer when they shut down. In good years, the shutdown lasts two weeks. This year they're talking about nine, it'll sting here in Detroit, but that's far from the end of the world.

 

....I'm wondering about the supply chain for parts in case of a warranty issue. Will the sub contractors be able to stay in place? just curious...

 

Many of the suppliers also take a summer shutdown and have for years. You don't notice it from a consumer standpoint because the stock of extra parts is already in place for all but the rarest of parts. It stinks if you're ordering a car and it doesn't get built before the shutdown, but otherwise you're good.

The practice started as a way to coordinate employee vacation and factory retooling. Over the years, the automakers found that it saved quite a bit of money by having white-collar workers observe the same downtime.

 

It sounded like the workers would be getting unemployment compensation for about 72% of their wages and GM would make up the rest to the contract level (90%?). Is this a way for GM to put another load of expense on the taxpayers, instead of the stockholders?
The new guy at Ford was worth his weight in gold. I think they will be the big survivor when all this shakes out - and I will be wishing I could have bought shares at $4.00. My FFH is built, waiting on delivery ETA.

 

I don't know the details of how GM handles things, my wife's office at GMC was never shutdown when she worked there. She did work for a supplier who laid off all the employees during shutdown so they could collect unemployment every year.

Multi-week shutdowns are nothing new to automotive workers for both domestic and foreign companies. Some companies do them more frequently or on larger scales, but all of them do it.

 

Shut down keeps inventories down so prices can be maintained. This favors better resale value for owners too. Ford has been managing supply in this manner for many months now, and they have sold well while reducing cash burn. Chrysler chose to reduce inventory by offering huge incentives and look where it got them.